32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

We pray! Open our eyes Lord!!
We live in a divided and polarized world -- a world where so many are poor and oppressed, where hate seems to be growing – a world where the gap between rich and poor is extreme and growing larger!

Our faith calls us to stand with the poor, to stand with the oppressed, to open our eyes anew to injustice to oppose hatred. The readings today, and especially the Gospel, call us to recognize this injustice--to see and act in a new way--to move out of our comfort zone and look deeply -- to see a new vision, a vision that God wants for us. This vision may be costly and difficult to realize, a vision that truly challenges us!

I recently talked with a woman who became homeless. Her journey to homelessness started when she helped a relative with funeral expenses. This is so unimaginable, isn't it? -- to become homeless for helping family grieve the loss of a loved one -- for burying the dead? Although she doesn’t earn much, she works hard; she has a job; but she only gets paid minimum wage and sometimes her hours are cut. This woman made a conscious decision to use part of her meager earnings to help pay for a funeral when no one else could. She lives on the very edge, so this single act of love caused her to fall behind in her rent and she was evicted. All because she loved! It is easy to say that she should have looked ahead, she should have realized that this was not a prudent thing to do. She should saved her money for her rent. That would be logical, and it’s easy for us to criticize, easy from our perspective. But if this were to happen to you, what choice would you make? I know what I would do.

Today in the Gospel, we hear a powerful, but familiar story, the story of a widow and her generosity. It’s natural to focus on the widow's two coins and her giving from her poverty, providing an example of how we are called to share.

But there is more to this gospel! Jesus gives us stories that are meant to help open our eyes, to make us a bit uncomfortable. In the gospel, when Jesus speaks about the widow, he isn't just speaking about widows alone. No, He is using them to represent all who are weak and vulnerable: the sick, the disabled, orphans and refugees, all of the defenseless people, people who are ignored or pushed to the margins. Jesus is speaking strongly against those who take advantage of the defenseless - the poor ones -- as we hear in the Gospel "those who devour widows' houses." He is against those who are corrupt or abusive. Jesus identifies the Scribes as 'thieves' and he isn't impressed with their 'long prayers'.

Jesus is not focused on money. He wants us to question who we are as people of God. What do we hold dear? Jesus' story of the widow exposes the injustice of poverty and the imbalance of wealth and power in society. He wants us to see corrupt systems that take advantage of the most needy, the very people that they are meant to protect.

We see the abuse of the scribes, when they use their position and power to defraud those they should be serving. These corrupt scribes coerce those in poverty to donate, "to give even if it hurts"! This abuse of power goes against every tenant of our Christian faith! It is not wrong for the poor to donate. But what outraged Jesus was that institutions used religious and political power to defraud the very people that they are charged by God to protect! The scribes and the temple should have been helping, calling attention to the needs of the most weak and powerless, instead of gaining wealth and power for themselves. Sadly this type of abuse still occurs in many of our charitable and social institutions today. A question we need to consider is whether we might be guilty of supporting policies that allow the exploitation of others even if indirectly, or in subtle and unseen ways.

As a people of God we are called to open our eyes, to look at ourselves, our church, and our society with the eyes of Christ. How do we identify ourselves? Do we live as children of God? Today we are asked to take a deep look at ourselves, and our values, to truly see! Will we recognize the widows among us today? Why is it that just a few miles from Penfield there are thousands of children and families living in poverty, individuals that are struggling to find food and the most basic housing? Even our own neighborhood, in Penfield, families are struggling, some without enough food, or adequate housing.

Do we stand idly by while organizations swallow-up money meant for those most in need to serve them? Are we willing to stand up against violence and hate? What are we doing to help the poor and disadvantaged of our time, those that don’t have a voice in our society. Those struggling just to provide for themselves and their family? We are called to make Christ and the poor the center of our being, not things, power or money. Let Christ speak through us! Will we allow Him to use our hands and feet to build a more just world?

What is our treasure? What we are willing to give away is more telling about us as a person then anything we say. Let us open our eyes to see where Jesus is calling us. Let us answer this question: How will I courageously address violence and injustice and do the good that needs to be done?